Vera Bradley Taps VibeIQ for Enhanced Design Collaboration
Vera Bradley kicked off 2024 with a new design of its design, making technology investments in a new partnership with VibeIQ, the collaborative productivity solution, to revolutionize its collaborative functions, go-to-market strategy and design process.
Created in 2020, VibeIQ’s solutions focus primarily on companies that design, manufacture or sell products, with the goal of accelerating go-go-market processes with collaborative apps and an extendible cloud platform. In conversation, Quach Hai, vice president of customer success at VibeIQ, said that most recently for brands including Vera Bradley, this has meant focusing on helping brands improve speed from time to market to agility and decision making.
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One of the key problems for brands, Hai said, is that product line data is spread out and disconnected. Users don’t have easy access to information they might need to make decisions, and time is wasted creating presentations that are often not updated. By not having all of the information in one place, it can be hard to understand change as it happens and hard to share across teams.
VibeIQ’s solution includes several go-to-market applications from a flexible visual line planning tool for collaborating on omnichannel assortments, boards for collaborative whiteboarding for design ideation and collaboration and showcasing with a digital product presentation tool to a 3D virtual showroom builder.
Lisa Strubel, vice president of design and development at Vera Bradley, and Kelli Thornson, director of product development, said that they’ve found the board application to be incredibly helpful for collaboration as designers can see the full picture of a collection.
“VibeIQ’s suite has been a game-changer for us,” said Strubel. “Its intuitive design and real-time collaboration capabilities have dramatically streamlined our processes. With features like direct integration from PLM and easy CAD attachment, VibeIQ bridges the gap between design and merchandising seamlessly. It empowers us to make informed decisions, visualize our product line, and work concurrently with ease. This is critical for our highly iterative approach during concept and design, bringing immeasurable value to Vera Bradley’s entire go-to-market strategy.”
The team shared that Vera Bradley was able to implement VibeIQ’s applications in just a month and started seeing the benefits very quickly. The design team, they said, was able to focus on design rather than creating presentations. Strubel and Thornson said this has also resulted in significant improvement in collaboration with internal and external teams. A surprising result, they said, was a cutback on the need to create samples as the suite allowed them to see the full assortment together at an earlier stage.
Still, a very new partnership, Strubel and Thornson said they believe they are just getting started with VibeIQ’s solutions and are working on continuing to onboard more teams to the platform across the company.
“We are at the cusp of a major shift in how the fashion industry operates, and Vera Bradley was looking to find a best-in-class solution to accelerate innovation,” said Brian Lindauer, chief technology officer at VibeIQ. “Our collaboration suite enables Vera Bradley to synchronize merchandising and design on a single platform. This more agile way of working will increase speed and improve decision-making, resulting in operational efficiencies and improved top-line revenue for our customers.”
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